On September 20, 1995, it was reported that the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion of the United States Army Reserve was to conduct a training exercise simulating an invasion of a foreign island. They were to land on Key West and conduct affairs as if the islanders were foreign (which, ignored by the federal government and the 478th, they actually were.) However, no one from the 478th notified Conch officials of the exercise.

Seeing another chance at publicity, Wardlow and the forces behind the 1982 Conch Republic secession mobilized the island for a full-scale war and protested to the Department of Defense for arranging this exercise without consulting the government of the Conch Republic. The leaders of the 478th issued an apology the next day, and they submitted to a surrender ceremony on September 22, ending the war.